Lower the din – Aircraft noise a Pain for Residents around Airport
Aircraft noise a pain for residents around airport
Sahil yaduvanshi, 4, loves airplanes. He does not have to go far to look at one. He just has to peer out of his play school window and look up every few minutes to see one. “This is Cattie…,” he shouts out to his friend Pushpesh as he looks out. Sahil enjoys the sight of the planes, and wants to become a pilot when he grows up. His only complaint is to do with the roar of the planes. “I cannot hear my teacher and my friends because of the noise,” Sahil said. He studies in Aadyant pre-school in Vasant Kunj in Delhi. Most of his friends find it difficult to concentrate after a third runway—Runway 29—became operational at the Indira Gandhi airport in September 2008. “The children get disoriented as there is an airplane flying by every few minutes. We have to repeat lessons and even raise our voices to be heard,” said Bhavina Bembi, a school counsellor. Continue reading »
Filed under Delhi, Environment, Pollution | Tags: Air Transport, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Delhi, Environment, Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), Health Effects, Noise Pollution, Noise Pollution Control | Comment (0)Too Hot to Handle – Storage of Toxic Industrial Waste
India has tightened guidelines for storage of toxic industrial waste. But is it enough?
A fire at Ankleshwar forced India to rethink how it handles hazardous waste. Drums carrying dangerous industrial sludge flew amid leaping flames and burst in the air at a waste storage at the industrial complex in Bharuch district of Gujarat on April 3 last year. Ash fell all around. People in nearby villages were told to evacuate; many suffered coughing, headache, nausea and burning sensation in the nose and throat.
It could have turned into a disaster worse than the Bhopal gas tragedy but for the change in the wind direction away from other factories (see ‘Bhopal to Bharuch’, Down To Earth, April 30, 2008). Continue reading »
Filed under Environment, Pollution, Travel | Tags: Bharuch, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Gujarat, Hazardous Waste, Hazardous Waste Regulations, India, Ministry Of Environment And Forests (MOEF), Toxic Wastes, Waste Disposal, Waste Incineration, Waste Management, Waste To Energy, Waste Treatment | Comment (0)Deadline for disposing UCIL (Union Carbide Plant) waste
The Madhya Pradesh High Court on December 16 issued fresh directions to dispose the toxic waste lying at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal. The waste is to be incinerated at the waste treatment site in Ankleshwar industrial area of Gujarat. The court directed the Gujarat government to dispose the hazardous waste by January 31, 2009.
The waste has been lying at the plant since 1984 when the Bhopal gas tragedy occurred. The 350 metric tonnes of waste is at the centre of a legal wrangle between Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat governments.
The Gujarat government did not comply with similar orders passed by the high court in October 2007. A fire at the hazardous waste treatment facility (managed by Bharuch Enviro Infrastructure Ltd. or beil) and opposition from local non-profits were cited as main reasons for non-compliance. Continue reading »
Filed under News, Pollution | Tags: Bhopal Gas Disaster, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Gujarat, Hazardous Waste, High Court, Madhya Pradesh, Supreme Court, Toxic Wastes, Union Carbide, Waste Disposal, Waste Incineration | Comment (0)Pollution Not under Control
Parliamentary report calls for saving the Central pollution control body
It’s official. The Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb), the nodal body for regulating environmental norms in India, is being “reduced to a near-defunct body”. The parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment and forests for the first time took note of the problems ailing cpcb in a report tabled in Parliament on October 21.
Issues like unqualified members and lack of enforcement power have long plagued the central and state pollution control boards (spcbs), a fact acknowledged by the board heads. The committee also noticed that the scarcity of technical staff was affecting the functioning of the boards.
“The key posts in cpcb and spcbs are being manned by officers of the Indian Administrative Service or bureaucrats who neither possess the necessary capabilities and expertise in properly managing and planning pollution control activities nor have enough time to pay attention to these activities,”
the report said. Continue reading »
Filed under India, News, Pollution | Tags: Air Quality Monitoring, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), Environment, India, Ministry Of Environment And Forests (MOEF), Parliament, Pollution Control, Water Quality | Comment (0)